Image courtesy of Google.
Lets talk about vegans. Last night I watched a documentary on Netflix called Vegucated. It was a brilliant documentary about a woman who grew up eating meat, learned how meat is produced and opted to become vegan. She then sets three New Yorkers the challenge of being vegan for six weeks. It follows their journey and then it lets us know if the will stay vegan or go back to eating meat.
During this the three vegan newbies learn about the meat industry. Now, this is the part I had to partially close my eyes for. if you are sensitive to animals and animals in pain, then please be forewarned, it is not nice to watch some of these clips. It basically showed what happens to animals, be it chickens, cows or pigs, in slaughter houses and also in milk farms and egg farms. Now, this is based in America, so I am not 100% aware if this is the case globally, but I can make an educated guess and say that it is. The scenes that followed are probably going to stick in my head forever. I have seen some footage before on shows like Oprah where cows get huge bolts shot into their heads to kill them, but this was awful.
The worst for me was the chickens. I wont go into a huge amount of detail but as a lover of all animals, baby chicks especially, this was the most painful part to watch. Egg producers only really need female chickens, obviously, so has anyone ever thought "well what happens to the male chicks?" I'll tell you. The (adorable) baby chicks come in on a huge conveyor belt, the male ones are thrown out and the females go on to produce eggs. The male chickens however, have one of two fates, get put into massive plastic bags and left to die, or get ground up alive. Which would you pick?
The females aren't going on to great lives either, they will be put in tiny cages, have their beaks seared off and forced to produce eggs constantly. Fun right?
This documentary has helped me to open my eyes to not only the way these poor animals are treated (which is in-humane and sick in my opinion) but also that we really do need to eat less meat, fish and poultry. Our bodies do not need meat to survive and protein can be gathered from many sources such as nuts, grains and legumes. The fact that we do not need meat means that these animals are dying for no good reason. If everyone opted to try and eat less meat for eg. Meat Free Mondays, it would actually greatly improve not just our health and the lives of these animals but our environment. The production of meat emits more co2 emissions than all the vehicles on earth. Hello? We only have one planet to live on!
So if we all opted for the meat free version of something be it on occasion (Meat free Mondays) or choosing to become vegetarian at the least (this is great by the way :D ) then as cliche and cringey as it sounds, the world will be a better place. Remember, vegans save an average of 95 lives a year just by not eating meat, so keep that in mind.
I am however aware of how difficult it can be to change your diet and lifestyle, be it a cultural thing, religious or whatever it might be, but if we don't all try well there might not be any more fish in our oceans or trees in our forests. I myself will now be opting for a less meat filled diet and I hope some of you do too.
Nowadays there is so much available to those with different dietary needs, that with a little effort and the want to go meat free, it can be done. Have you ever even tried a veggie burger? Aldi have amazing ones that don't taste like eating cardboard. Almond milk is also a great alternative to dairy in my opinion, and i think it might even taste better too! There are so many vegetarian and vegan restaurants popping up that eating out can also be a little easier.
I would eventually love to go fully vegan, and I hope that more people will too, or at the very least watch the documentary and open your eyes to the world you actually live in.
♥
